Krishna Kumar Mitra (1852–1936) was an

Indian freedom fighter The Indian independence movement consisted of efforts by individuals and organizations from a wide spectrum of society to obtain political independence from the British, French and Portuguese rule through the use of many methods. This is a li ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and leader of the

Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ( ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement during the Bengal Renaissance. It was one of the most influential religious movements in India and made a significant contribution to ...

. He is remembered for his contributions to the

Swadeshi movement The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public i ...

through his journal ''Sanjibani''.

Early life and education

Krishna Kumar was born in the village of Baghil in the

Mymensingh district Mymensingh District () is a district in Mymensingh Division Bangladesh, and is bordered in the north by Meghalaya, India and the Garo Hills, in the south by Gazipur District, in the east by the districts of Netrokona and Kishoreganj and in ...

(now

Tangail district Tangail District () is a district (''zila'') in the central region of Bangladesh. In 1969, Tangail mahakuma was separated from the Mymensingh District, Mymensingh district, and a district of the same name as the mahakuma's was created. The dist ...

) of

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

in what is today

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

in 1852. He was a Hindu

Kayastha Kayastha (or Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Ka ...

by birth and his father Guruprasad Mitra was a landholder who led an agitation against oppression by British

indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

planters. Krishna Kumar was educated at Mymensingh's Hardinge Vernacular School and the Zilla School and obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from the

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in Asia. ...

in 1876. Subsequently, he studied law at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

for a while.

Brahmo leader

Deeply influenced by his father who was a local Brahmo leader and his schoolteacher Girishchandra Ghosh, Krishna Kumar was inducted into the Brahmo faith in 1869 at the age of 17. He became a member of the

Sadharan Brahmo Samaj The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj or Universal Brahmo Samaj is a division of Brahmoism formed as a result of schisms in the Brahmo Samaj first in 1866 and then another in 1878. Due to ideological differences, Keshab Chandra Sen, one of Brahmo Samaj ...

and his journal ''Sanjibani'' became the Samaj's principal mouthpiece. He was elected president of the

in 1918.

Career as a journalist

Mitra launched his

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

journal ''Sanjibani'' in 1883. In 1886, he published a series of articles on the condition of the Indian workers in the tea plantations of Assam based on investigations by Dwaraknath Ganguly forcing the government to provide legal protection to tea garden workers. The second floor of Mitra's 6, College Square residence served as the office and press for the journal. His nephew

Aurobindo Ghosh Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian yogi, maharishi, and Indian nationalist. He also edited the newspaper ''Bande Mataram''. Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King' ...

stayed here during 1909-1910 before escaping to

Pondicherry Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...

Teaching career

Mitra taught at the AM Bose School and College (under the

) in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

from 1879 to 1908 when he resigned from his post as superintendent and professor of history following the colonial government's threat to cancel the college's accreditation if he continued to be associated with the swadeshi movement.

Political life

Mitra joined Surendranath Banerjee's

Indian Association Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peopl ...

in 1876 and became its joint secretary and Banerjee and Mitra traveled across

northern India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

to popularise their political ideas. Mitra was also associated with the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

since its inception and was part of its 'moderate' faction in Bengal. In 1890 he joined the indigo cultivators' agitation.

Swadeshi movement

Opposed to the partition of Bengal and influenced by colleagues like

Ananda Mohan Bose Ananda Mohan Bose () (23 September 1847 – 20 August 1906) was an Indian politician, academic, social reformer, and lawyer during the British Raj. He co-founded the Indian National Association, one of the earliest Indian political organization ...

and Kalishankar Shukul, Mitra joined the anti-Partition Swadeshi movement. He used his journal ''Sanjibani'' to rouse public opinion against the partition and on 13 July 1905 he openly called for the boycott of foreign goods through the journal. He attended the Bengal Provincial Conference at

Barisal Barisal ( or ; , ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal District and Barisal Divi ...

in 1906 where he condemned police atrocities against Swadeshi activists. The same year the Bengal government issued a circular banning the singing of ''

Vande Mataram Vande Mātaram (Bengali language, Original Bengali: বন্দে মাতরম্‌ ''Bônde Mātôrôm'' Devanagari script: वंदे मातरम्; , Transcreation: I Bow to Thee, Mother) is a poem that was adopted as the nati ...

'' in any procession or public meeting. Mitra became president of the Anti-Circular Society that was formed to oppose the ban. For his involvement in the Swadeshi movement, Mitra had to resign from his job as a professor of history and in 1908 was deported from Calcutta for two years by the British authorities.

Family

Mitra married Lilabati Devi, the fourth daughter of Rajnarayan Basu in 1881. At their wedding, conducted in accordance with Brahmo rites,

Narendranath Dutta Swami Vivekananda () (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was a major figure in th ...

sang two songs that were composed by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

for the occasion. Mitra was the maternal uncle of

and

father in law A parent-in-law is a person who has a legal affinity with another by being the parent of the other's spouse. Many cultures and legal systems impose duties and responsibilities on persons connected by this relationship. A person is a child-in-law ...

Sachindra Prasad Bose Sachindra Prasad Bose () (died February 1941) was an Indian independence movement activist and follower of Sir Surendranath Banerjee. He was the son-in-law of the moderate Brahmo leader, Krishna Kumar Mitra. On 4 November 1905, when he was ...

who unfurled the Calcutta Flag at the Parsi Bagan Square in Calcutta in 1906.

Social reformer

Krishna Kumar Mitra was a dedicated social reformer opposed to

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of an idol as though it were a deity. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the Abrahamic ...

caste system A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

and the social and religious prejudices in Bengal. He formed a Nari Raksa Samiti to work for the protection of women's rights. He was also an advocate of temperance who strongly criticised the government's decision to establish public drinking houses.

Books

Besides his journalistic pieces in the ''Sanjibani'', Mitra also authored several books including ''Mahammad-Charita'', ''Buddhadev-Charita'' and ''Bauddhadharmer Sangksipta Bibaran''. He also wrote an autobiography, ''Krishna Kumar Mitrer Atma Charit''.

Death and commemoration

Krishna Kumar Mitra died in 1936. The Assamese writer

Padmanath Gohain Baruah Padmanath Gohain Baruah (1871–1946) was the first president of Asam Sahitya Sabha and a prominent name in the early part of modern Assamese literature. He was a novelist, poet, dramatist of excellence, analyst and a thought provoking writer. C ...

included a short biography of Mitra in his ''Nithikatha'' which he wrote as a textbook for school children to "show respect" to "a selfless patriot and deeply religious man hoThrough Sanjibani, a paper which was run and edited by him, the bad luck of the tea garden coolies of Assam were slightly changed".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitra, Krishna Kumar 1852 births 1936 deaths Bengali Hindus 19th-century Bengalis 20th-century Bengalis People from Mymensingh District Scottish Church College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Academic staff of the University of Calcutta Indian social reformers People from Tangail District Bengali writers 20th-century Indian journalists 19th-century Indian journalists Indian schoolteachers Indian educators 19th-century Indian educators 20th-century Indian educators 19th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian writers 19th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian male writers West Bengal politicians Journalists from West Bengal Social workers from West Bengal Indian social workers Mymensingh Zilla School alumni